Spring thing

This morning I'd been hearing weird thumping sounds now and then...?? :unsure:
Eventually I realized that it's the sound of big blobs of wet snow dropping from my trees and hitting the ground: THUMP!
Because I've spent the past couple of winters avoiding central Oregon winter I'd forgotten that sound... :rolleyes:
It's been snowing a couple of inches this morning but at or above freezing, so it's wet and heavy. But the total is just a few inches so not a problem.
 
MarkBC said:
This morning I'd been hearing weird thumping sounds now and then...?? :unsure:
Eventually I realized that it's the sound of big blobs of wet snow dropping from my trees and hitting the ground: THUMP!
Because I've spent the past couple of winters avoiding central Oregon winter I'd forgotten that sound... :rolleyes:
It's been snowing a couple of inches this morning but at or above freezing, so it's wet and heavy. But the total is just a few inches so not a problem.
Click to expand...
We call them, "Snow bombs."
 
Day 13
Power restored

PG&E moved the goal posts from restoring power on Tues 10pm to Wed 10pm, then Friday 10pm and finally on Saturday our power returned just after noon. Our generator costs about $10/hr to run, so I'm sure we're looking at $1000+ on our gas bill. Many folks were really scrambling to buy propane, so we should be grateful we have piped NG.

On a positive note, our two homes, multiple sheds, pump houses and one commercial building survived without collapse or being hit by a tree. Several commercial warehouses in Grass Valley have collapsed due to excessive snowloads. One of my jobsites is still snowed in. SR's family home her folks built in the sixties was narrowly missed by a large pine, and we still need to plow the road over there. Another tree missed her propane tank, just barely. We've been very lucky.

We're now into the atmospheric river of rain and snow is receding. For the first time in weeks SR and I made our Saturday foray to the gym. I've cut my Ibu/acetaminophen dosage in half and am on the mend and was able to do my workout with less weight.
A buddy at the gym who worked for Livermore Labs tells me he took snow samples (while shoveling off his roof), and found the snow to be ~30% water content. We've had at least six feet of snowfall, so that roughly translates to 1.8 feet of water. More to come, but in liquid form now. Folks in flood areas need to be alert.
 
Getting power restored - especially after days - is such a relief. Our Safeway closed on Friday (yesterday) as the roof showed signs of possible collapse. A crew cleared the roof of snow and the store reopened. A big crew is shoveling the snow off the roof of our community center building today. We are doing fine with what we shoveled off and removed from our roofs here at home.

In 2011 the Safeway roof collapsed from snow load, as did the hardware store, bowling alley, and the large historic steakhouse.
 
ski3pin said:
In 2011 the Safeway roof collapsed from snow load, as did the hardware store, bowling alley, and the large historic steakhouse.
Click to expand...
The Raleys at Stateline is closed because the roof has "buckled" and is leaking. If I could find the photos again of the inside I'd post them - water just pouring through the ceiling.
 
ski3pin said:
Getting power restored - especially after days - is such a relief. Our Safeway closed on Friday (yesterday) as the roof showed signs of possible collapse. A crew cleared the roof of snow and the store reopened. A big crew is shoveling the snow off the roof of our community center building today. We are doing fine with what we shoveled off and removed from our roofs here at home.

In 2011 the Safeway roof collapsed from snow load, as did the hardware store, bowling alley, and the large historic steakhouse.
Click to expand...
teledork said:
The Raleys at Stateline is closed because the roof has "buckled" and is leaking. If I could find the photos again of the inside I'd post them - water just pouring through the ceiling.
Click to expand...
This takes me back to growing up in the Redding, California area...back to late December 1968, when Redding received an all-time record dump of snow -- 16 inches. Most winters Redding doesn't receive any snow, so buildings weren't (aren't?) designed to carry 16 inches of heavy wet snow. The roofs of several flat-topped department stores collapsed.
Redding-1968-Snow.jpg

Besides the flat roofs, big old oak trees with huge wide limbs took a lot of damage because of snow weight that they didn't evolve with. At night in the snow-stillness we could hear the deep CRACK of big limbs breaking!

The power at our house was out for several (?) days, but the neighbors across the street must have been on a different line because they had power. I think it was on Christmas Eve that we were across the street at the neighbors house watching Apollo 8 broadcast from orbit around the moon, delivering an inspirational Christmas-y message. While watching that, the power came on across the street -- our house. A Christmas miracle!
 
Got the truck and camper up to the house for the first time this year after shoveling through a couple of drifts on the driveway. The upper part of the drive where the snow (and the ground) washed away looks like a creek bed.

Augered into 2 feet of Slurpee trying to get to my usual parking spot but was able to back out of it. Then augered in trying to turn around so I could be pointed out. Shoveled more snow to get a turn around and left the truck right outside the door.

Commiserating with a friend up the road - she said she dug herself a grave in the snow and lay down in it. Her husband found her and asked if she wanted a sandwich.
 
teledork said:
Commiserating with a friend up the road - she said she dug herself a grave in the snow and lay down in it. Her husband found her and asked if she wanted a sandwich.
Click to expand...
how considerate of him! :D
 
ski3pin said:
"Five inches is nothing!" Julie says.
Click to expand...
just saw they've refined the forecast for tomorrow - another 1-2 inches of rain, snow level 8300 ft, up to 65 mph winds
the first word out of my mouth had four letters, starts with an s

edit to add from the NOAA discussion: "The main atmospheric river punch appears to be centered on Mono-
Alpine Counties".

I can't remember the last time Hwy 88 was open. The Walker Canyon is closed due to avalanches, Hwy 182 out of B-port is closed due to flooding, 395 over Conway Summit has been closed for a couple of weeks (I think - I've lost track of time) 167 to Hawthorne is closed and the biggie is the multiple avalanches on 395 along the shore of Mono Lake.

edit again to add that 395 between me and groceries, the area burned by the Tamarack fire, was closed by a mudflow for a day or so, fortunately we got in a Costco run before that happened

We. Don't. Need. Anymore.
Thank you.
 
We have a lot of road closures in the Monterey Bay area.
Traffic between Monterey and Santa Cruz is stopped due to Pajaro River flood water over hwy 1.

Many other roads closed.The best idea ,stay home.

Crews are working to close the break at 400' now in the Pajaro River levee.
I don't think the town of Pajaro will be livable for many months.
With more water going into the river the whole valley on the Monterey county side will be one huge lake.

But this storm seems to be moving through quickly.

Frank
 
That last storm was not as advertised thank goodness! Cars up at the house for the first time since last year after digging through a couple of deeper drifts.

Supposedly skiers and drones have been cruising the avalanche zone north of Lee Vining delaying progress on the stabilization of the area. They were dropping explosives from a helicopter. My guess is that someone else dresses these people in the morning so they don't end up with their underwear on the outside.
 
teledork said:
That last storm was not as advertised thank goodness! Cars up at the house for the first time since last year after digging through a couple of deeper drifts.

Supposedly skiers and drones have been cruising the avalanche zone north of Lee Vining delaying progress on the stabilization of the area. They were dropping explosives from a helicopter. My guess is that someone else dresses these people in the morning so they don't end up with their underwear on the outside.
Click to expand...
Sadly, these behavior/actions no longer surprise us. A vast majority continues to celebrate their ignorance and happily document it.

Cars back up at the house. Life's little pleasures are the best! :)
 
ski3pin said:
Cars back up at the house. Life's little pleasures are the best! :)
Click to expand...
no more having to pull on ski pants over my jammies to go get a package that was delivered long after dark, dragging trash cans down the hill to the truck or hauling up a 38 pound bag of dog kibble
 
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